Shadows
by alder3049
Summary: I don't mind your shadows, cause they disappear in the light. Yeah, I don't mind your shadows, cause they look a lot like mine. And listen to me, it's okay. To be afraid. Just walk like you're never alone. I don't mind your shadows, your shadows. Baby, I don't. A scene between Brant and Jolie right when Brant KILLS her. Some Lodestar spoilers.


**This is not Stairs that Lead to Nowhere.**

 **I know.**

 **It should be.**

 **But it's not.**

 **Cuz I got lazy.**

 **But the song's** ** _Shadows_** **by Sabrina Carpenter.**

 **Just so you know.**

 _We all got nightmares in our dreams  
We look for someone to believe in us _

_And show us the way  
And make it okay  
The world can be dangerous_

 _Dangerous…_

There she was. There she was. Her bright purple dress might have been too short and low-cut for Grady's liking, and the engagement ring on her finger might have almost brought Edaline to tears, but she was there.

Jolie.

She had been away too long, studying in the Silver Tower, and Edaline told her that as she stroked her daughter's hair and hugged her. Jolie looked worried. Her eyes flashed from place to place on Havenfield's property, as if she was expecting someone to jump out of the bushes or from behind the T. Rex pasture, but the grand, sloping yard was as silent as ever. Her cheeks were hollowed, and there were dark circles under her eyes, but it didn't seem to matter as she hugged her parents. "Mom. Dad. It's good to be home."

They were both too happy to see their daughter again to question why she wouldn't talk about the upcoming wedding, or why she was so antsy while Edaline baked ripplefluffs and set out bowls of Indigoobers, but they frowned when she excused herself and rushed upstairs to her old room.  
 _There's something so rare in your veins  
Not a single thing I would change  
And oh, if you only knew how I see you  
Would you come alive again, alive again?_

She'd held off the tears for this long.

Jolie stood in that room, too bright and frilly and happy for what she felt on the inside, the numbing pain that made her cold and sharp to her parents and friends and made her stray away from her soon-to-be-husband and turn toward the people he called enemies. She sat, with the tears running down her face, madly finishing off the last of the notebook with the mirror compact. She kneeled in front of the wall, prying off the glass and replacing it with the mirrored box from the Black Swan. She couldn't look Vertina in the eye as she gave her last instructions to the little glass figure.

She looked out over the beautiful sunset as she called her Swan Song.

 _I, I need you to understand_

 _I don't mind your shadows  
Cause they disappear in the light  
I don't mind your shadows  
Cause they look a lot like mine  
And listen to me, it's okay _

_To be afraid  
Just walk like you're never alone  
I don't mind your shadows, your shadows  
Baby, I don't_

"Brant."

"Brant."

"Brant."

No matter how many times she called, he wouldn't answer the crystal door. He wouldn't let her inside his glittering house.

So she shoved her way inside, the same way he had shoved the icy shards of hurt into her heart.

"Brant."

"Brant."

"Brant."

She repeated it, her own little mantra, as she climbed the cold glass staircase. The house seemed empty, silent, dark. Her Imparter buzzed, but she kept going, too focused on her true love to be encumbered by distractions. She felt stripped away, no longer a true part of this world of glittering palaces and secret organizations and words that didn't speak truth.

Of people who hid behind lies.

"Brant."

"Brant."

"Brant!"

 _Pictures in our head of what we're supposed to be  
Measuring ourselves, but where is the love?  
Where is the love?  
The world got us wondering, wondering…_

He was here.

He was always here.

Hiding behind his own falsery.

"Why would you do this to me?"

Startled, he dropped his Imparter.

"Jolie, you…It's not what it—"

He was wearing it.

Even here.

Even now.

That disgusting eye.

And even after he turned, his handsome features crinkling into a frown, she knew there was a piece she still didn't have.

"What is it? Where is it?"

He looked so helpless.

"What are you talking about?"

"Your Project Moonlark. Whatever you've been working on. What is it?"

He stepped closer.

"Jolie, I'm sorry…"

There was fire in his hand.

Fire.

Fire.

Fire.

The word rang in her head, the light burned into her eyes.

What her parents had warned her of before she'd started dating Brant.

Fire.

Fire.

Fire.

There were tears running down his face, but he took another step.

"I need you to leave, Jolie, I can't tell you. I only know bits and pieces—"

She charged toward him.

 _I, I need you to understand_

 _That I don't mind your shadows  
Cause they disappear in the light  
And I don't mind your shadows  
Cause they look a lot like mine  
And listen to me, it's okay to be afraid  
Just walk like you're never alone  
And I don't mind your shadows, your shadows  
Baby, I don't_

"Just tell me."

He didn't look helpless anymore.

He looked angry.

"Fine," he snapped.

"Lodestar Initiative.

Gisela Sencen's unborn son.

Project Moonlark's end."

She clung to each word like a life raft in the sea, like a trickle of water in the driest desert.

And as he got closer, she sent out one last hope that everything would work.

The Foster family.

Vertina's secret.

The notebook in the mirror.

 _And all these voices in our head  
Well they keep screamin' louder and louder  
But they won't pull us under_

 _Baby, I don't mind your shadows  
Cause they disappear in the light  
And I don't mind your shadows  
Cause they look a lot like mine  
And listen to me, it's okay to be afraid  
Just walk like you're never alone  
And I don't mind your shadows, your shadows  
Baby, I don't._

Because the Black Swan had shadows.

And they were so, so similar to the Neverseen's.

So she hoped upon hope upon hope

That her daughter

Her Project Moonlark

Would find her way to the shore

And fly.

 **Yes.**

 **I know.**

 **MR FORKLE SAID THAT JOLIE WASN'T HER MOM!**

 **But he didn't actually.**

 **He said that she 'wasn't really connected.'**

 **Or along those lines.**

 **Which could mean that she just didn't tweak her genes.**

 **But c'mon.**

 **WOULDN'T THAT JUST BE MAGNIFICENT?**

 **Well, anyway, I think it would.**

 **Xoxo,**

 **Alder3049**


End file.
